Blueray HD Audio without HDMI

[Ambrose]

I am looking for a blueray player to go with my existing amp Arcam AVR 280 & B&W MT20 surround speakers. I like the sound quality for music from the Arcam and want to keep this. As the amp doesn't decode HD Audio or indeed accept Audio via HDMI cable, can I still listen to HD Audio formats from a Blueray player?

I currently have Marantz DV6001 DVD player connected to amp with coax cable and also cheap phono cables for playing SACDs.

Can someone let me know what is possible and is sound quality compromised?

Many Thanks

Ambrose

 

[daveh75]

so long as you go for a bd player that can decode the formats on board and has multi-channel outputs your be able to get hd audio using your arcam.

 

[Anonymous]

Spooky ! I was asking a simular thing as I want to buy the Arcam AVR-280 for its supposed musicality and add a Blu-Ray with sound via analogue to get the HD sound. Can you tell me whether the Arcam would be £400 well spent against less quality more functional receivers.

I am looking at getting the Sony 550 Blu-Ray at £219 or if the picture justifies the extra £380 then the Pioneer BDP-71 at £599 but I think getting the Arcam and Sony for little more than the price of just the Pioneer makes sense (unlike me!)

Cheers.

 

[daveh75]

if you can do without the functionality then yes the avr 280 is a great buy imo

 

[Ambrose]

Thanks Daveh75!

I could upgrade the phono cables in the meantime for playing multichannel SACDs as well without wasting money. I only heard Onkyo 605 as well which was good for cinema but not that great for listening to music. The Arcam sounds decent enough as a replacement for a budget hifi setup as long as you don't expect too much. If you can, get larger speakers than I have for fronts for a fuller sound. The MT-20 still do a respectable job considering size however. The Pioneer is supposed to be quite musical I think and would try out if you can as you should get much better sound compared to the Sony which is a budget player.

Depends on your preferences really. I think I will be replacing my Marantz player with something like the Pioneer which is good at both Visual and Audio.

Question, If connecting multichannel Audio to Arcam AVR 280 then do you need to set speaker distance, levels etc in the Blueray player rather than on the AMP? I don't think all this can be set on the Pioneer???

HELP!

Thanks

Ambrose